Familiar Faces
by Julia451
Summary: A psycho in a mask, the embodiment of all evil and darkness, your inner demons brought to life... Watching "The Legend of Korra" brings up painful memories for Robin and Raven. One-shot pseudo-crossover. Rated T for discussion of the Y7-appropriate violence depicted in both shows. (Do not read if you like Korra's confrontation with Zaheer in "Beyond the Wilds.")


One of the many things Robin was an expert at was time travel – whenever he went into the gym, time stopped; then he'd come out to find that he'd traveled hours into the future. Tonight was no exception. By the time his thirst and sore muscles brought his attention back to the world around him, it was after 1 a.m. Amazing that he'd made it this long with none of the others coming in concerned for his sanity or telling him to give it a rest for the night... he'd have to ask everyone tomorrow if they _had_ and apologize for anything rude he'd said in response.

But first, sleep. He was halfway to his room before he conceded he'd have to make a detour to the kitchen for water. Wandering the Tower at night was always a risky business – you never knew when someone's reflexes might be faster than their reason and cause them to blast your head off before realizing you weren't an intruder – but he made it through the halls without incident.

It wasn't until he opened the doors to the operations center that he realized he wasn't the only one still up. He could just make out the shape of the figure on the couch silhouetted against the light of the TV screen. "Raven?"

"Robin," she said without turning around. "You're up late."

"So are you." He went to kitchen area and took a bottle of water from the fridge before making his way over to the sofa, noting the driving rain pounding against the windows behind the television. "What are you watching?" It was a cartoon. A girl with blue eyes and brown skin was sitting on the ground next to a boy with gold eyes and a red scarf.

" _Can I ask... what happened to your parents?"_

" _They were mugged. By a Firebender. He cut them down right in front of me. I was eight."_

Robin cocked an eyebrow as he repeated that last speech twice in his head to be sure he'd heard that correctly. Without looking at him, Raven asked, "You've never seen this before?"

That was a weird question. "Of, course I've heard it before, but why...?" Robin trailed off as he realized what she actually meant. The characters themselves _did_ look familiar. It wasn't until a brawl started between them and some protester yelling about the "Avatar," however, that he remembered. "Isn't this Beast Boy's favorite show, _Avatar: The Legend of Korra_?"

"Don't let James Cameron hear you call it that."

He had no idea what that meant, but he took it as a yes. Which just raised a bigger question. "I thought you hated this show," he said.

"I do."

"Then why are you watching this?"

"A test."

Still didn't explain anything. "Does this have anything to do with... whatever's been going on today?" They'd all noticed that Raven had, by her usual standards, been out of sorts for the past few hours.

"Yes," Raven answered simply before she leaned forward and closed her eyes. She couldn't explain _what_ had happened to her today or why. Beast Boy had been watching this show non-stop ever since it premiered, and most of his roommates, including herself, couldn't help but absorb some of it along with him. She hadn't seen anything new today, nothing she hadn't known about for months, but she must have reached her limit because something within her snapped this time...

It had happened without warning. One minute, she and Starfire had been walking down the hall. "It appears we have failed again," her friend had sighed.

Raven tucked her book under her arm as she walked alongside her. "Don't expect too much too soon. It took me two years of trying before I could contact the Spirit World."

"But we have spent so much time meditating, I thought we surely would have..."

"Meditation is easy. Meditating into the Spirit World is much more complicated."

"Perhaps I have not learned enough. If I knew more about the things you use..." The redhead looked at her friend and then suddenly smiled, struck by an idea. "Oh! Could you teach me about the chakras?"

Raven shrugged. "If you want," she began, continuing as the door in front of them opened. "But that wouldn't really help in this..."

" _We love gals with spirit!"_

She abruptly fell silent as the two of them stopped in the doorway and turned from each other to the source of the sound – the TV across the room. Starfire noticed the battle onscreen with interest, while Raven narrowed her eyes in contempt. They walked forward to join the two boys at the far end of the room – Beast Boy on the couch, his left arm thrown across the back, thoroughly engrossed in the program, and Cyborg typing away at the computer off to the side. The latter was shaking his head in annoyance. "Man, can't you watch something else? You haven't turned that off for more than five minutes all week."

"And I never will. Not until I've absorbed so much of it that my brain can't take anymore," Beast Boy said proudly without taking his eyes off the screen.

Starfire looked from the fan to the show. "I have never seen this program before. This is...?"

" _Avatar: The Legend of Korra_ ," Beast Boy informed her, before leaning his head against his hand and sighing as he watched the heroine attack her opponents with several slabs of rock. "Dude, isn't she awesome?"

Cyborg rolled his eyes and turned around. "Come on, it's just another cartoon! What's so great about...?" He stopped talking as the girl onscreen shot a few more towers of rock in the air. Something about the sight seemed to answer all questions and take away his right to question her fanboy's pleasure in watching her in action. "Never mind." He turned back to his work as the battle ended.

Apparently bored, Beast Boy began working the remote; he had downloaded all four seasons by this point and was now rapidly pulling up, skipping, and fast-forwarding through scenes. Intrigued by what she saw, Starfire asked, "Please, who is this... Korra? What can she do?"

Raven opened her book and leaned against the back of the sofa so that her back was facing the screen. Hoping the subject would drop, she answered laconically, "She controls the elements – Fire, Air, Water... and Earth."

The scene-surfer had stopped on another battle where she was doing just that. "Yeah... she's so amazing. Kor-ra... even her name is beautiful."

Something seemed to occur to Starfire as she watched the girl launch a block of stone in the air. "Yes... interesting... that rhymes with..."

"The original series was better," Raven said sharply.

Cyborg grinned and turned to her. "Oh, yeah? Who was your favorite? 'That gloomy girl who sighs a lot'?"

The Tamaranean, a confused look back in her eye, turned to Raven. "It was a show about you?"

"No!" came the voice from the couch, putting down the remote and letting the show play without paying attention as he turned around to face the others and talking at 60 to 70 mph. "It was about a group of kids traveling around the world trying to find masters to teach the Avatar how to Bend Water, Earth, and Fire so he could defeat the Fire Lord before this big comet came at the end of summer or else he'd burn down the entire world, and they did it, and he took the guy's powers away, but he died 70 years later, so Korra became the new Avatar, but these guys called the Red Lotus tried to kidnap her and raise her to be evil, but they got caught and thrown in prison for 13 years, until Harmonic Convergence gave their leader Airbending, so he broke them all out, so they could capture her and assassinate the Earth Queen and stop the Avatar cycle, but then this gal named Kuvira shows up, and..."

That was as far as he got before Starfire's horrified gasp cut him off. He turned to see what had caught her attention: _"Your name will echo throughout history – Korra, the Last Avatar..."_

" _The sun will set on your world, never to rise again!"_ Raven slammed her book closed with a snap that echoed around the room. Fortunately, nobody commented on it. She eventually heard Starfire say, "I did not know this was a horror movie."

"It's not," Beast Boy told her. "It's just dark."They kept talking, but Raven wasn't listening to them...

" _She can't resist forever."_

" _No matter what you wish, no matter where you go, no matter how you squirm, there is nothing you can do to stop it."_

Raven blinked and shook her head, trying to ignore the memory just like she had the first time she'd seen this. She realized she was gritting her teeth in rage, which meant she was a second away from losing control. _Relax_ , she told herself, pushing away all sounds from the television and the conversation around her. _He wasn't there. He doesn't know. None of them know what it looks like to you. It's just a show..._

" _You're too weak to resist, and I'm stronger than ever! There's no use fighting. Let go!"_

" _I am the one with all the power! I am the one who decides your destiny! You do not have a choice!"_

She involuntarily seized her left wrist and squeezed, trying to ward off the pain. _Focus. Focus on something else..._

" _You can't fight me and the poison!"_

" _You might be able to stop time, birthday girl, but you can't stop me."_

She flew out of the room at lightning speed, her only goal to get away before something exploded...

"What do you mean, a test?" Robin's question pulled Raven out of her reverie.

"Just trying to figure something out," she replied, still without turning around.

"In the middle of the night?" Robin asked next.

"Didn't want to bother anyone."

Robin knew from personal experience that wasn't true (she just didn't want anyone to see its effect on her, whatever it may be), but he saw no need to say so. He walked around the sofa and sat down next to her, taking another long draught from his bottle.

" _Please welcome your hero, your savior… AMON!"_

Robin instinctively clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes at the sight. Judging by how tightly Raven's trembling fist was locked by her side, she was resisting the same impulse he was. He still remembered the name that had instantly jumped to his mind the first time he'd seen that masked face. He hadn't seen much of this show, but there was one character he would never forget. Hearing him talk still gave Robin the urge to punch someone who wasn't there.

" _Then... he took my face."_

"I never bought that for a second." Raven picked up the remote and switched to a different episode.

"Me, neither," said Robin – if it had been true, the man never would have told anyone. Villains like him didn't announce anything about their true past or motives like that.

When Raven let the show resume playing, Korra was shouting, _"I'm not afraid of ANYTHING!"_

" _I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid..."_

"Never works," Raven said once the flashback stopped.

She skipped ahead a few scenes.

" _Amon, I challenge you to a duel! No task force, no chi blockers, just the two of us, tonight at midnight on Avatar Aang Memorial Island! Let's cut to the chase and settle this thing!"_

" _It's about time we met face-to-face."_

"Stupid move," said Robin.

" _I received your invitation, young Avatar."_

" _I have a message for you..."_

Raven still remembered how shocked she'd been the first time she'd seen this – the way he threatened her, the way he touched her... She could tell by the look in the girl's eyes that she was imagining the very worst, the same thing Raven had imagined that day...

" _I assure you, I have a plan. And I'm saving you for last. Then you'll get your duel, and I_ _ **will**_ _destroy you."_

 _In his own way, when he's ready, after he's had his fun,_ Robin added in his head. He reached up and touched his shoulder, which suddenly ached as if his arm had just been wrenched behind his back...

Robin was surprised that Raven cut away from the scene as soon as the villain had left, but he was even more surprised when she started playing the scene where he took Korra's power. He glanced at her; he couldn't read anything in her face, but something about the expressionless way she watched Amon reach inside the girl's soul and rip out a piece of it unnerved him. He wanted to say something but could sense that he shouldn't. He turned back to the show.

" _I'm impressed. No one has ever gotten the better of me like that. It's almost a shame to take the Bending of someone so talented... almost..."_

Robin would have felt ashamed of the chill that ran down his spine if he hadn't sensed the same reaction in his companion. The scene was just so familiar. Raven paused the picture but said nothing. "It's the mask," he finally said aloud, more to the air than to anyone else. "That's what always gets me." It felt like a confession.

"For me, it's the voice," said Raven.

" _Robin – we meet at last."_

"Good point." The voice certainly didn't help. Put that with the mask, the overly-cryptic nature, and his interaction with the teenaged male and female lead, and the guy was a dead-ringer for Slade. "They did a good job, I'll give them that – couldn't have made him any creepier."

"Yeah – he can pull off the Phantom-of-the-Opera look as well as Slade could."

"At least he's not a Firebender," Robin said as the reincarnation of their arch enemy rose out of the water.

"At least he got what he deserved," Raven said after the explosion.

Robin scoffed at that. "He got off easy. Nobody reached inside him and mangled _his_ soul."

"Best we could hope for, though."

"Too bad for Korra, though. She never got the satisfaction of defeating him once and for all."

Raven gave voice to what they were both thinking: "Neither did we." They both knew how horrible that felt, the agony of never knowing what happened to your enemy after he got away.

"Did she ever find out what happened to him?" Robin asked. He was sure he hadn't seen anything after the first season.

"Not possible. No time for them to address it," were Raven's answers. She started playing an episode from the second season this time. "Out with the old villain, in with the new."

" _What will it be? Open the portal… or lose your friend's soul forever?"_

"Man, why can't these guys ever open a portal themselves?" The two viewers turned around at the same time to see Cyborg walking towards them. "Why do they always need to blackmail their niece or their daughter to do it?"

"Couldn't sleep?" Robin asked as his friend reached them.

"Nope." Cyborg walked around the other end of the couch and rested his hand on the back. "Don't think I will until I figure out what kind of creature that was we saw today. Sorry to interrupt your late night party."

" _Jinora? Jinora! Jinora!"_

Raven had let an episode play without realizing where she had stopped. Robin's eyes widened when he saw what was going on. "What the...?" Words failed him as he was thrown back to a certain incident in the past: _"Who... who are you?"_

"Apparently, feeling lost and powerless has the same effect in every universe," said Raven.

"Guessing you never saw this part before, huh?" Cyborg sat down on Raven's other side, and they all watched the scared little girl who, up until a few moments ago, had been a powerful young woman.

"No," Robin whispered, still not fully recovered.

"Yes," Raven said.

Robin eventually found his tongue again. "No wonder you don't like this show."

"This is nothing," Raven told him. Her tone certainly didn't imply that it had any profound effect on her. "It's probably been done a million times elsewhere." She was now playing the scene where a man used the heroine's power to bring the red-and-black essence of all evil, darkness, and chaos to the world. "So has this."

When the battle was over, Cyborg rubbed his head. "What just happened there anyway?"

"Even the writers don't know," was Raven's answer.

The big man groaned. "I hate _deus ex machinas_."

"Looks like she defeated him the same way Raven defeated Trigon and banished him from Earth," Robin said matter-of-factly.

"Who defeated who what way?" a sleepy voice far behind them asked. The three teammates looked around to see a yawning and stretching Beast Boy had arrived. When he noticed what they were watching, he grinned and said, "About time you guys realized how incredibly awesomely awesome this show is," as he leaned on the back of the couch.

Turning her face back to the screen, Raven sighed and asked, "What are you doing up?"

"Midnight snack mission," he replied before leaping over the back of the sofa to sit next to Robin. "Where's the popcorn?"

"Not here," Raven said in her characteristic monotone as she started a new episode. It looked like a building was collapsing – Korra had to stop a giant stone tower in mid-air as it fell into a crowd of people.

Beast Boy sighed at the display. "I bet Terra would have loved this."

"I bet she would have," said Raven, unamused.

Robin instinctively raised his eyebrow but straightened out his features before Raven could notice (he hoped). Was _that_ what she hated about this show? She skipped ahead to another scene. A group of guards were approaching what was obviously a _very_ high-security prison.

"Who lives there?" Robin asked. "Plasmus?"

"Worse." All three boys noticed how Raven shuddered at the sight of the prisoner, the murderous glint in her eye, the way her grip tightened around the remote. Inexplicable as it was, at least it answered Robin's last question. Whatever about this show bothered Raven, Beast Boy's crush on the heroine wasn't it.

"Couldn't just walk away," Cyborg said, shaking his head, as the prisoner escaped. "You _had_ to listen to him, had to keep talking... what, were they _trying_ to maximize his opportunity to pull something?"

"They got complacent," was all Robin said, equally disappointed but not surprised. "Who is that guy?"

"You don't want to know," said Raven.

Beast Boy's answer was more detailed: " 'That guy,' my friend, is _Za-heer_ – leader of the Red Lotus, first Airbending antagonist of the series, master of stealth and strategy, and expert assassin."

"Must be a lot more dangerous than he looks," Robin observed, adding up the old man's appearance with the prison required for him.

"You want to see what he's really like?" Raven asked in a tone of suppressed fury that immediately put all three boys on edge.

"You okay, Raven?" Cyborg asked her as she started a new episode. She didn't answer, didn't look at him, as if she hadn't heard him; they all knew better than to repeat the question. When the show started playing again, this Zaheer was sitting down chatting with Korra. Something about the scene bothered Robin even more than Raven's behavior, but it took a while before he realized why, where he'd seen this before, why it looked so familiar:

" _With members of the Red Lotus as your elemental masters, we could have taught you so much."_

" _Sounds like you wanted to brainwash me so I'd do whatever you wanted."_

That was when it hit him like a punch in the gut:

" _For some time now, I have been searching for... an apprentice. Someone to follow in my footsteps. And, Robin, I've chosen you. Congratulations."_

Robin could feel his arm shaking as he clenched his fist, restraining the urge to shove it through the screen. Raven was right – it _was_ the voice that made the similarities stand out so much, the memories the scene resembled so vivid.

" _You're a very smart young woman, Korra..."_

Always with the flattery. That was the most infuriating thing about villains who wanted you as their evil apprentice – that and the calm, polite, fatherly tone they always used... He noticed that the episode had ended, but Raven had stopped on the season menu, as if she was hesitating. Robin was suddenly seized by a not-at-all-pleasant suspicion and turned towards her. "It gets worse, doesn't it?" He knew she knew what he meant.

"You won't believe how much."

Now he understood how she was "testing" herself. "You don't have to watch this, Raven."

She turned to face him. "Yes, I do. I'm sick of getting chills every time I hear a line from this show. I'm not going to let it beat me. I have to face my fear."

None of her friends asked what she was talking about. Robin simply asked, "Do you want us to leave you alone?"

"Do whatever you want, I'm not going to waste my breath arguing. Besides, I know you want to see how it ends now."

"I do," Robin confirmed.

"Uh... I don't know what's going on with you two," Cyborg began, his voice full of concern, "but mind if we stay, too?"

"It's up to you," Raven answered (knowing they had no intention of going anywhere when they were worried about their friends) before playing a new scene. Robin actually gasped at what he saw.

" _Your pain will soon be over."_

What in the world were they doing to her? It looked like she was about to be sacrificed to some monster. And why had they...? Wait, _how_ had they...?

"I haven't seen this one," said Cyborg. "Not the whole thing. What are they doing again?"

Beast Boy immediately started explaining: "They want to destroy the Avatar forever, but they can't do that unless the current Avatar is in the Avatar State, and, obviously, she's not just gonna go into the Avatar State if they ask nicely, so they're gonna poison her, causing the Avatar State to automatically kick in when her life's in danger – you know how powers do that – and then they can kill her."

Cyborg looked from the screen to his companions, still baffled by the connection between this explanation and the ritual they'd just watched begin. "So what's with the set-up? A cave, chains, why do they need all that?"

"She's dangerous – duh!" the expert pointed out. "They needed to put her in a position where they could poison her, but they'd be safe from any attack she could possibly throw at them."

That didn't make any more sense to Robin than it did to Cyborg. "And there was no other way they could neutralize her?" the Boy Wonder asked.

"She was unconscious before they brought her there," Raven explained. "If you want someone to be unable to hurt you, you don't put an unconscious and therefore harmless person in an elaborate rig and _wait for them to wake up_."

"Would their ritual work if she was unconscious?" Robin suggested.

"Let's say it wouldn't," Raven replied. "They have two methods for paralyzing people in this world, one of which they've used on her already, and another which also stops people from using their powers. So, no, they didn't need to do any of this. Same way they didn't need to strip off most of her clothes." Raven kept talking to ward off the memories threatening to break through. "Her outfit was already sleeveless; they already had the exposed skin necessary to apply the poison."

"They just wanted to watch her suffer," Cyborg whispered in horror.

Raven corrected him: "They just wanted to enjoy the show."

Cyborg shook his head in disbelief. "Man, who writes this stuff?"

A dangerous silence followed...

" _What you have concealed, you shall become!"_

There had been no reason for him to rip her cloak off and burn away all but two thin shreds of her clothes that day, either – when Trigon's marks appeared, they showed through her clothes. Delivering a message didn't require partially stripping a girl any more than poisoning her did. He had just been having fun. Enjoying the "fringe benefits," as Robin said he worded it. She could still feel his iron-clad grip on her wrists...

While Raven squeezed her wrist in her own hand to fight off the feeling, Robin was reliving that same day. When he'd caught Raven and seen what Slade had done to her, his first thought had been that the madman had done something unspeakable. When he'd asked her, "What did he do to you?", not daring to put his suspicion into words, she'd assured him, obviously deducing his fears, "Not that. Nothing worth speaking of. I'm okay now – no permanent damage done. Yet... Let's just get out of here." That hadn't made any sense – why else would Slade...? But it was a subject Robin couldn't press her on; all he could do was take off his cape, put it around her shoulders, and lead her home.

His cape hadn't completely covered her. It had been obvious that the others had jumped to the same conclusion he had as soon as they saw her. Cyborg and Beast Boy had instantly looked away, and Starfire had clasped both hands to her mouth and trembled in a way none of them had ever seen before. Even after they'd calmed down enough to believe Raven's claim that nothing had happened, they were still shaken by such an extreme, gratuitous act of brutality? Robin tried to forget about that day – as they all had – so why were they watching something that just made it all come back? Especially Raven?

Raven took a deep breath and started the next episode, which began with some very unnecessary monologuing as the villain explained to the girl he was about to kill exactly how and why he was about to kill her. What purpose did that serve? How was _that_ required for his plan? In context, the only reason for why he would tell her all that could be that he enjoyed watching her suffer, that he wanted to make the torture even worse, to see her fear of what was to come. Even though he knew it was fictional, Robin felt indecent watching this, watching an innocent girl trapped in such a helpless position. But there was another feeling underneath it – sympathy. He knew exactly how it felt to be so helpless, held completely at someone's mercy, knowing there was nothing you could do to help yourself, no way out, that your enemy had complete and total control over you...

" _I know it seems bad now, but trust me, you'll learn to like it."_

By the time he'd been given the order to change, he'd numbed himself to everything, not allowing himself to notice or wonder about anything around him. He hadn't paused, hadn't hesitated, hadn't even batted an eye when it became obvious the man intended to stand there and watch him change. He'd even realized after the nightmare was over that he hadn't been surprised at the time. He shouldn't have been surprised that Korra's enemy put her through the same degradation Slade had put him and Raven through.

" _Administer the poison."_

This was it. The moment that always got to her. Not this time. Raven forced herself to keep her eyes open and on the screen, to watch every second, take in every detail, of the girl's slow, cruel, agonizing torture. But she couldn't force herself to ignore the memories. She couldn't tell whether she was listening to Korra's screams or remembering her own.

" _The message will be delivered. Your destiny shall be fulfilled."_

Even their positions were almost the same – arms spread wide, wrists restrained, the light of their energy pouring from their eyes, while they writhed and screamed in sheer panic and agony from both the pain and the horrifying visions, the mind divided between the physical torment of the present and the terror of what this would mean to the future. The longer Raven watched, the more she wanted to look away, but she refused to give in again. The only way to stop its effect on her was to face it.

The heroine's battle was almost more painful to watch than her resistance – that meant that her enemies were that much closer to victory, that she was losing. Raven was grateful for all the fast-paced movement now, though – focusing on every move of the combat made the flashbacks stop. At least, it did until it got to the part where predator and prey were struggling hand-to-hand in mid-air. The sight sent Raven back to that brief moment when she'd thought it was over, only for Slade to grab her and knock her out of the sky. No matter how hard she fought, nothing stopped him! Nothing even slowed him down! She'd attributed it to Trigon's enhancements, but maybe it was just his natural, obsessive persistence; Zaheer was a regular human by his world's standards, and he was just as implacable, just as impossible to escape.

" _You're too late! The poison's been in her system too long! The Red Lotus has won!"_

Had that been what she looked like? When she lay exhausted and half-conscious in Robin's arms? Wishing that death would set her free? She was sinking into another painful flashback of when she'd come to her senses – too weak to teleport away like she so desperately wanted, unable to do anything but cross her arms over her breasts and avoid his eye, more ashamed of her friend and leader seeing her so vulnerable and defeated than of him seeing so much of her body – when she felt a hand slip gently into her own. Without looking, she knew it was Robin. She hung her head, closed her eyes, and clasped it firmly. She felt no need to shrink away from his touch like she would have had it been anyone else. She had nothing to hide from him. He knew it all. He understood. He was the only one here who could.

Once the scene was over, she closed her eyes and released a long, cathartic sigh. When she opened her eyes, she looked at each of her teammates in turn. She could tell by the expressions on their faces that Beast Boy and Cyborg had made the connection this time, too. It had never occurred to them before, but she'd never sat down and watched it with them before; they knew enough to deduce what Korra's ordeal must have reminded her of. Beast Boy was the first to speak: "I'm sorry. I had no idea."

Raven looked right at him and said, "I know."

"I never realized it was so... intense," said Cyborg.

Intense _and_ , once again, familiar. Robin tried to shake off the memories that had risen up as he'd watched Korra scream and moan under her torture – memories of excruciating pain, of his heart about to explode in his chest, of his body shutting down one muscle at a time...

" _You always knew it was going to end this way."_

He'd managed to keep them at bay until her hallucinations started, when the darkness in her mind took on the form of her enemies and spoke to her in their voices... just like had once happened to him...

" _I am the thing that keeps you up at night, the evil that haunts every dark corner of your mind."_

But there was nothing more merciless or dangerous than the things that existed only in your mind. Robin couldn't blame Korra for losing the battle to suppress her power and giving in – he'd given up as well: _"Slade... stop..."_ No mind could withstand such an assault for long. _Assault_... he'd pushed the word away and the next word it led to – he was reading too much into it.

Or was he? Did Raven see that, too? That was when he'd glanced at her and realized what kind of struggle was going on in her mind. He had been instantly overcome by the urge to reach out to her, but he hadn't dared give into it. Not until Korra had collapsed after her fall off the mountain in the exact same position he'd found Raven after her fall off the building. Now they were both reliving the same event. He took the risk of touching her; he had to let her know she was not alone.

Even after the episode was over, the four of them sat there in silence, overwhelmed by the inhuman depravity they'd just witnessed. Neither Robin nor Raven released their grip on the other's hand. Eventually, Robin accepted they couldn't sit there forever. He sighed and said, "Well, I guess that's over." Quite the bitter bittersweet ending, but...

"It's not over," Beast Boy and Raven said together.

"It's not?" Robin and Cyborg then asked together.

Beast Boy shook his head. "Of course not. There's still one season to go."

"I'm sure I'm gonna regret asking this, but... who's the villain this time?" Robin asked next.

"Kuvira, yes?" came Starfire's voice from the back of the room before she floated forward to join her friends. Robin's and Raven's hands slid apart as she approached.

"Sorry, Star," said Cyborg. "Did we wake you?"

"Oh, no," the alien princess replied. "I was merely awoken by the rain and peeked into the hallway to make sure all was well when I heard voices coming from here and came to investigate. I am relieved neither the Puppet King nor some other intruder has disturbed us tonight."

"Nope," Beast Boy confirmed, shaking his head. "Just an impromptu _Legend of Korra_ marathon. You're just in time for Season 4."

"Are we going to watch that?" Robin asked, half-glancing at Raven.

Everyone seemed to be waiting for her to make that call. She was about to say, No, but then wondered, Why? Why didn't she want to watch it? Was she afraid of something else? Zaheer wasn't involved; he didn't even appear except for one episode... "Yes," Raven answered softly but firmly, realizing her test wasn't over yet. She needed to see it through to the end.

Cyborg moved over as Starfire rose up and then landed between him and Raven. "I expect this should be interesting. Beast Boy has told me much about this Kuvira, but I have yet to see her."

"It's not Kuvira I want to watch," Raven informed her as she browsed through the episodes. She couldn't remember the title of the episode where...

"Which episode are you looking for?" Beast Boy asked her.

For reasons she didn't examine, she didn't want to tell him what she was looking for or why. She selected one at random to give herself an excuse not to answer and jumped forward a bit like she'd been doing all night.

" _The only way you're going to keep me from marching into Zaofu is if you physically stop me."_

Starfire gasped and almost jumped out of her seat, trembling from head to toe, her eyes wide. "What's wrong?" Robin asked her.

"It... it is Blackfire," the stunned girl managed to say.

"What?" Beast Boy glanced from the paused picture of the Earth Emperor standing with her hands behind her back to Starfire. "Nah, she's nothing like Blackfire."

"Perhaps not," said the Tamaranean, "but she _looks_ and dresses and sounds exactly like her."

"Hmmm..." Cyborg crossed his arms. The black hair, the narrow eyes, the deep voice, the cocky tone, the metal outfit, the posture... "She's got a point."

Starfire gave herself a brief shake. "Forgive me, it was merely the voice. It is not hers, but it sounds so much like hers."

Raven narrowed her eyes again as she stared at the screen. Starfire was right – how could she not have noticed that? Especially given everything else that looked so familiar...

"Weird," was Beast Boy's comment as Raven began flipping haphazardly through the episodes again.

" _You can see her, too? If you can see her, maybe I'm not going crazy..."_

This wasn't it. Raven was about to pull up a different episode when Robin started forward. "What? What is she talking about?"

As usual, Beast Boy was ready to explain: "After she finished her physical recovery in the South Pole, she tried to go back to Republic City, but she stopped when she saw a vision of herself like she'd been when the Red Lotus almost killed her. It's been stalking her ever since."

"Is it real?" Robin asked in a voice obviously straining to repress emotion.

"Uh... I'm not really sure. According to that scene, it must be real, but it's not a real spirit, so I think it's..."

"It's only in her mind," Robin finished for him. Her mind made it real.

" _I will never rest. And neither will you."_

" _My friends say... you're not real!"_

" _Oh, I'm very real..."_

Robin turned to Raven with a palpable sense of urgency radiating from him. "Go back. I want to see what this is."

She complied without comment. Robin watched the furious, terrified girl let herself get brutally beaten, run blindly through a swamp, work herself into one frenzy after another in an attempt to fight this apparition relentlessly haunting her. Nothing he saw weakened the resemblance. Or made his heart beat any slower. He knew what he was watching, but all he could see was that horrific battle with Slade. His vision of him. The hallucination that nearly killed him. "Who writes this stuff?" he heard his voice growl. He felt a hand touch his shoulder, and deduced from the fact that he didn't reflexively jump or whip out a weapon that it must belong to the empathic Raven. He felt himself calm down.

"Was that what it was like?" Robin heard Cyborg ask. That could only be meant for him.

Robin thought for a second before he answered. "I guess I had it easy. She suffered with it for, what, a year? I only had to deal with it for one day. On the other hand, hers couldn't talk, didn't beat her almost to death. I guess it _was_ different. And I'm hardly the first person who's been through something like that anyway." He stopped, only to add without intending to, "The mental part of the ordeal was _exactly_ like that."

"Oh, Robin," Starfire whispered.

"It's okay, Star. It's over."

Raven finally decided to ask, "What's the episode when Zaheer comes back?"

"Episode 9, 'Beyond the Wilds'," Beast Boy answered. "That's when Korra goes to confront him in prison."

Her memories of this one were vague. Raven started the episode and let it play normally when she saw Korra with Zaheer, but it was just another vision.

" _It's like he's blocking me from meditating into the Spirit World."_

" _You might be able to stop me from meditating..."_

Yeah – enemies had that effect on you. Raven skipped ahead until she saw Korra enter Zaheer's cell, expecting a repeat of her own rematch with Slade the day her friends learned the prophecy. She'd never paid careful attention to this scene before, but she would this time.

" _I came here to look you in the eye and tell you that you have no power over me. I will no longer be scared of you!"_

" _I'm not afraid of you anymore!"_

Just as she'd expected. He probably had some escape plan in mind, and Korra would find closure in stopping him.

" _You RUINED me!"_

Robin shuddered at the words. So he _hadn't_ been reading too much into that other scene – the writers had just confirmed it was symbolic rape. At least they were honest.

" _Blaming me is a crutch to make you feel better, but it's not helping you recover."_

It took every ounce of Raven's willpower to keep her eyes from glowing black. The nerve of telling your victim it was _her_ fault that she suffered after you tortured her! Korra had better get him for that.

" _... but you choose to hold yourself down."_

" _I'm not holding myself down, but my powers have limits."_

" _You're wrong."_

Okay – what was going on here? This was the man who brutally, mercilessly, heartlessly tortured her, who had given no sign of remorse for what he'd put her through, and they were talking like mildly hostile exes! When did someone call him out for being such a hypocrite, lecturing the girl he'd brutalized like he was nothing more to her than a particularly strict professor?

" _Well, I can't stop her unless I get over this block."_

" _I think I can help. Let me lead you into the Spirit World."_

Yeah, right... let me counsel you and help you get over the trauma I put you through – that will definitely work. No better person to get therapy from than your attempted murderer! Only a truly depraved mind could think that could possibly help...

" _Focus on the sound of my voice, and clear your mind."_ What?

" _Let it play out."_

" _I can't!"_

" _You can. Accept what happened to you. Don't fear what might have been."_ What?!

" _I have no control!"_

" _Don't be afraid."_ WHAT?!

" _I made it. And you led me here."_ Her voice was full of peace, ecstasy, and gratitude. It had worked. Someone had the nerve to claim that could work!

"AAAAH!" With a terrible cry of rage, Raven was on her feet. A flash of black light, a gust of wind, a powerful sound, and before the other Titans knew what happened, the glass of the screen was shattered, and the back of the machine was smoking.

While the four onlookers gasped at the explosive display, the telepath behind it seethed in silent fury, disgusted by what she'd just seen. Had she deliberately avoided watching this whole confrontation before? Blocked it out, sensing what an absurd, insulting, despicable thing was happening? She'd found what she was looking for – the scene of this show she couldn't stand more than any other, the one that got to her the most, the one she couldn't bear even to think about, not because it was familiar, but because it _wasn't_. It wasn't dark; it was absolutely sickening! "Who. Writes. This stuff?" she said a low, icy voice.

The sense of motion around her brought Raven back to reality. Her four friends had stood up and were looking at her, not with fear but with worry. She panicked for a second before she took in the wreckage in front of her. Nothing but the television was damaged – no one was hurt. She groaned at her loss of control. "Sorry," she said. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Repairing physical damage to a machine took only a few seconds longer than fixing jewelry or putting a door back on its hinges; when she lowered her arms, you couldn't tell anything had happened. Her job done, she floated away and over to the window. The rain was still falling with no sign of letting up any time soon.

She wasn't surprised to see Starfire's reflection come towards her. "Raven? You are... all right?"

"I'm fine. I just can't believe what they did."

The boys took a few steps in her direction but remained closer to the couch than to her. "What happened?" Robin asked. "What did you see?"

"It's what I didn't see." After indulging in one good sigh and shudder of disgust, Raven raised her head and turned around to face her friends. "I'm sorry I lost control, but that was too much. You saw what he did to her. Confronting your attacker in prison is nothing new, but look what they did when she got there. He gave her a lecture on letting the suffering he put her through get to her. Does anyone ever call him out on the hypocrisy of criticizing how much your victim was hurt by what you did to them?"

"No," Beast Boy said instantly.

Raven continued: "Which means, as far as the show is concerned, he was _right._ 'I tried to kill you, I _ruined_ you, but it's not my fault you're suffering – it's yours. Don't blame me for doing this to you. You should get over it, stop whining, man up, let it go.' Well, at least they're consistent – it fits the blaming-the-victim theme they maintained all season. Except for Asami, all anyone ever told her was, 'I know it's hard, but you need to get over it. Stop letting yourself suffer. It's your fault, your responsibility. You could get better if you wanted to. Just get better and stop making us feel uncomfortable by being depressed or angry. Grow up and stop being a baby.' But assume that was called for – the person who attacked, injured, and traumatized her _has no right to tell her that_. But the show let him do it. And validated everything he said. It didn't blame him for hurting her; it blamed her for letting what he did hurt her so badly. If Slade had ever said anything like that to me, I would have..."

"You wouldn't have gotten the chance," said Robin. "I'd have snapped his neck before he could finish the sentence."

Cyborg cupped one fist in his palm. "You'd have to get in line."

"Behind Starfire," said Beast Boy. "Remember how she almost blew his head off when he started talking about Raven?"

"After what he did to her, he had no right to speak of her in such a calm, smug, condescending way," Starfire said, her eyes briefly blazing bright green.

"Thanks," Raven said before she went on. "Someone should tell Zaheer that. Getting help from villains is nothing new, either, but look how he did it. Slade helped us after Trigon proved me right and double-crossed him, but _how_ did he help us? Can you imagine him counseling me on how to get over my fear of him or Trigon, like Robin did? Even if he'd wanted to, even if I'd let him, _it wouldn't have worked_. It would be impossible. That would be like a woman who was raped by a man who just happened to be a renowned, highly-skilled psychologist going to her rapist for therapy to help her cope with the trauma. That would never work. Nobody goes to their attacker for therapy. Even if Zaheer had the right to talk her through the flashbacks of him nearly killing her, he couldn't have succeeded." Raven had to pause for a deep breath. "There's a line between Dark and Absurd. And they crossed it."

Having nothing else to say, she turned back to the window, waiting for something to happen. Starfire made the next move, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder. "But you did not." Raven raised a puzzled eyebrow as she turned to the other girl, who put both hands on her shoulders before continuing: "You never did anything so absurd. When you confronted Slade after what he did to you, you did not listen to him. You did not submit to him. You did not accept the pain he put you through as something you ought to be forced to bear. You fought him. You saved us from him. You completely... turned the table over him from last time. You showed him that, even though he had deeply frightened you, he had not destroyed you."

"But I couldn't defeat him. He was already dead, so..."

Starfire did not let her go on: "That does not matter. What matters is that you made sure he knew he had not broken you."

" _This time,_ _ **I**_ _have a message for_ _ **you!**_ _"_

That had been her way of taking back control, of telling them that she wouldn't go down without a fight, that they couldn't scare her into despair and submission, and it had worked. She'd forgotten her sense of regaining control in that moment. Watching Zaheer's torture of Korra in the cave had made her relive Slade's torture of her on her birthday, but she'd been unable to finish the journey because the preposterous follow-up in the prison was nothing like her follow-up with Slade in the library. She'd needed someone to remind her of her victory that day.

"Thank you, Starfire." Raven held her hands over friends' for a second, then gently removed them from her shoulders so she could turn and face the boys as well. "Thank you all. For supporting me through all that when it happened. For not blaming me. For understanding. For always having faith in me." They could have lost faith in her at any point, but they'd always sincerely believed she had the power to win. They could have thought it was all her fault because of what she was, but they never had. _Avatar: The Legend of Korra_ had definitely taught her one thing: she'd never realized just how fortunate she was to have such friends.

The boys all stepped closer to her now. "You already thanked us for that," Robin said with a smile.

"But you're still welcome," Cyborg added.

"It's what friends do," said Beast Boy.

Starfire's grin was the brightest among them as she said, "We will stand by each other through anything."

"I'll never forget how you guys saved me." Four heads turned straight to Robin at those words. "Watching that made me remember a lot of dark times, a lot of horrible things." He was almost completely facing Raven. "But I got through them the same way we just got through watching them – because my friends were there for me." Raven knew he was talking about the way they'd held hands, supporting each other through the toughest moment. "Slade could have kept me as his slave forever if you hadn't risked your lives to come after me. That deadly hallucination could have killed me if you hadn't kept telling me it wasn't real. Whenever I fell, you guys were there to help me up."

Cyborg put a hand on his shoulder. "You do the same for us whenever we need it."

"Indeed," added Starfire.

Beast Boy was grinning extremely smugly as he said, "Man, maybe we should have marathons of this show more often..."

"No!" Robin and Raven said instantly.

Robin was the first to say more: "I had enough of those villains the first time around."

Raven simply added, "That goes double for me."

Beast Boy just shrugged. "Suit yourselves. The original series was better anyway." With that, he zipped back over to the couch and turned something on, the repaired set apparently operating perfectly. The others heard a female voice say, _"There really is no fathoming the depths of my hatred for this place,"_ before he propped his arm against the back of the sofa, leaned his head against his fist, and sighed blissfully.

Three of the Titans left standing all look sideways at Raven. "What?" was all she said, before turning back to the window. Starfire followed suit, but the two boys turned the other way.

"What now? You going to bed?" Cyborg asked his friend.

"Don't think I'll get much sleep after all that," Robin said vaguely. After that rollercoaster ride of emotions and flashbacks, he felt anything but tired.

Cyborg grinned mischievously at him and crossed his arms. "You know, I still haven't seen you pull off that new move you keep bragging about."

Robin mirrored his expression perfectly. "The sun was in my eyes."

"No sun in the gym. Ready for another round?"

"You're on." They walked away without another word, leaving the two girls alone at the window, staring at the raindrops.

"You are ready for sleeping?" Starfire asked.

"Not really," answered Raven. She still had so much on her mind after all that.

Starfire rubbed her arm awkwardly. "I believe you have said the barriers between our universe and the Spirit World are thinner at night, correct?"

"According to most sources."

They turned to face each other, Starfire lifting off the floor with a hopeful smile. "Perhaps now would be a suitable time to resume our attempts to contact the Spirit World."

Raven smiled back. "Sounds perfect." Neither of them noticed the way Beast Boy smirked amusedly at them as they headed out.

Once he was alone, the young changeling turned back to the television, smiling and shaking his head. "I don't know what they all got so worked up about. It's just a cartoon."


End file.
